Persistence. An underrated word (and trait) in my opinion that seems to have been lost somewhere along the way amongst social media culture, laziness, general apathy and the idea that everything should (and does) come easy.

Henry Wu (@hello.henry or @henrykhwu on IG) reached out to me via Instagram about creating some images but due to busy lives and living in different cities separated by a few hundred miles, we had to reschedule a couple of times. Despite being a model for 15 years now, I'm always hungry and happy to collaborate with new photographers, creatives and those willing to just (shocker) ask. Henry kept after me about shooting, and being someone who uses that same approach in my own career, I had to respect the hustle and we were able to grab an uncrowded weekend morning and make some awesome images in a couple of hours. We shot downtown Los Angeles at a museum called The Broad as well as in front of an epic tunnel and a few other nooks we found along the way. I'm stoked with the way this shoot turned out and and definitely added something different to my portfolio. Hope you enjoy them! -G

Surfing...Where to start. I used to beg my dad to take me whenever he would go which seemed like almost every day. He would come home afterwards and act out his waves whether it was getting barreled, doing a huge turn or even taking a solid set to the dome. His arms were in the air, his voice was extremely animated and I hung on every word. Regardless of which part he reenacted, I knew I had to try and I knew I would love it. There's allegedly a quote that I have no recollection of but absolutely believe to be true, in which I angrily (as angry as a small platinum blonde, bowl-cut sporting toddler can be) told my parents after being denied going surfing again, that I was going to "Take off my diapers and go surfing". To my credit, I did just that lol. In recent months I've had the chance to mix surfing with my modeling work and this job for the new surf brand Kimoa was an absolute highlight of that (despite being more lifestyle than actually surf/action). Working alongside Formula One driver Fernando Alonso, World Champ Surfer Shaun Tomson and last but not least Pedro Castro & Trickster Inc. was a rad experience. Also thanks so much to my booker Paul Nelson and JE Model for the opportunity. The following is a shorter version of the commercial we shot on this 3 day job that took place all around LA in the desert, Malibu, Venice, and finally downtown. Hope you enjoy it...brah.

I've been trying to put more effort into the motion/film/tv/commercial side of the business lately and when my good friend Steph Rodrigues asked if I wanted to be the lead in the next video for Sound Of Legend that was to be shot in LA, it was an easy choice. Steph was already a reoccurring character in this series of videos shot around the world and I had to be a part of it. We made our way to the desert for a day full of shooting aka doing burnouts and racing cars all day long. Great to be a part of this one!

I recently connected with Justin Chen via Instagram after randomly putting up a "Hey photographers let's shoot" post. I was immediately drawn to his super clean work, great use of natural light and stellar retouching skills. After some brief planning we decided on a few pieces of clothing and I demanded that he be up early for a 6:30 A.M. pick-up (on a weekend) so we could capture that warm morning light near the ocean. We drove north along the Pacific Coast Highway from LA proper and eventually settled on Leo Carrillo State Beach. We knocked out the following images in about an hour or so and it turned out to be one of my favorite shoots/photo sets of recent years (despite putting my manhood at peril in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean). Thanks so much to Justin for his work on this and to Stark Mag for picking up the story!